To age gracefully, go easy on these inconspicuously salty foods

It's widely known that consuming too much salt can take a heavy toll on your body. As well as increasing the risk of developing high blood pressure – which may lead to heart disease or stroke – sodium can also affect your overall appearance. As a natural dehydrator, salt can cause more wrinkles to form because the cells throughout your body leech off the moisture from your skin.

All in all, consuming a salt-laden diet can make you look and feel older than you should, so, in order to live well and age gracefully, it's important to moderate your sodium intake. But, according to the American Heart Association (AHA), that means more than just steering clear of potato chips, pretzels and other salty snacks.

Many of the foods we consume on a daily basis are also packed with excess sodium, so the AHA has published a list of the top "Salty Six": bread, poultry, pizza, cold cuts, sandwiches and soup.

Unless you pursue a very unconventional diet – at least by Western standards – you probably consume a fair few of these products regularly. And that, says the AHA, is part of the problem. Bread, for example, doesn't have an astronomically high sodium count, but the milligrams do add up throughout the day.

The question then becomes: how do you keep your sodium levels down without radically restricting your diet? Here, there are a few possibilities. If at all plausible, opt for homemade variations of these foods. By making your own breads and soups, for example, you control the salt shaker. Otherwise, taking a bit more time in the grocery store to look for heart healthy labels can also help with this issue.

Eating well and exercising regularly can certainly help you feel great as you age. But, if you still need a bit of a boost, consult the anti-aging doctors at Longevity Centres of America about their detox and hormone balance procedures.